Sutt San Jose. Merry Christmas Everyone.

Is it wrong to hope Sharks fans don’t get a single present under their trees other than a steaming pile of shit?

Is it harsh to hope whomever came up with the shootout to end hockey games gets a boot up his ass? It has ruined the end of games for me.

Is it really that awful to ask Santa Clause for bad things to happen to Ryane Clowe? I will have to find a jolly fat fuck tomorrow before it’s too late.

Ok, I really don’t wish for any of these things but it was fun to write, nevertheless. My own strange way of venting.

If I had one wish for the new year, it is that Simon Gagne and Justin Williams get some finish to their game because they are freaking KILLING me right now. That is the primary (with Justin EXCLUSIVE) purpose they serve. Now that I am seeing a more aggressive forecheck and pucks passed cross ice for one timers and far better scoring chances than the Terry Murray era, we need these players to bury the puck.

I know we have a certain reader and comment contributor here that fancies himself a “three” team fan (I am embarrassed to say I really like him), but I will tell him now (and remind him later) that the San Jose Sharks are not a contender and won’t do shit in the post season…and I am not just saying that to fuck with him (well, maybe a little). Their goaltending and defense will be their downfall.

I love Mike Richards. I wish we had three of him.

Look, we played a good game, not a great game, but I have seen two games now post Terry Murray era that have been encouraging. This game could have been over with a W if Anze Kopitar slid that puck at a better angle in the skills competition. That is how close the difference between a win and a loss can be and, tonight, was. So, don’t fret. Know that there is tremendous room for improvement from what we saw the past two nights and, for the first time in a long time, I am actually seeing progress in that direction.

Don’t let tonight’s loss get you down. That is 5 points out of 6 in 3 games.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. Jacob and I will be taking the next two days off and we will see you right here on Monday.

If that offends you, it’s better you don’t read or visit if, for nothing else, you don’t give yourself an ulcer. If you had read here long enough, you would know we are pretty tongue in cheek and bring levity so don’t take the insults too seriously. 99.9% of our readers know that. If you decide to come back, hey, open arms. Otherwise, you’re still aces in our book so long as you are a Kings fan.

Wow, yeah…hopefully this person doesnt come back to the site, just sayin! Talk about sensitive! This person was also on the band wagon to ban Rap in the 90’s as well LOL…just change the station and move on!!!!!! Geez. Freedom of speech people, NO ONE forces you to read this amazing shit!!! Shame on you!
On that note:

Bottom line is, Quick plays outstanding for them every night. They need to start playing for Quick and scoring goals!!!! How frustrated do you think Quick is standing on his head every night and playing like the allstar that he is? Well, you see it at the end of games when he breaks his stick at the door. This guy should be our top paid player, not Doughty. If we were putting more pucks in the back of the net, i bet Quick wouldve been voted as the starter in the allstar game. And if it werent for the combo of him and THE BEAST/Gretzky2(Mike Richards) which equals a two man team, we would be hangin with the Ducks on the regs, and god darn I HATE THEM and their BBQ sauce stained coach!!!! The forwards NEED to snap out of whatever funk or haze they are in, if not, Sutter just needs to unleash the fury!! Merry Christmas!!

Hey guys. That’s right Fuck San Jose. I’m originally from LA but had to move to SJ for school and have stayed up there for work. SJ has by far the most annoying fans in the sports world. The only enjoyment I ever get from the Sharks is when they start choking themselves out of the play-offs. It’s my favorite time of the year. You would swear someone died when you go to the local bars after a loss in the playoffs.

They are actually a pretty fun bunch up in San Jose. I went to game 2 the last playoffs, although soccer seems as popular as hockey, oddly enough. It’s a loud arena (partly because of its design and how it traps sound) and their fans are intense. That doesn’t make me hate them any less. :)

We pretty much dominated that game again. The officiating…shit the zeebs were getting paid under the table by sj. There were at least two or three holding calls against those bastards that the zeebs just turned a blind eye. I do like his Sitter keeps the lines intact and rolls four pretty consistently. Hopefully its just a matter of time for Richardson to click and then Richards Gagne to bring back some old time magic. Yes and Fuck San Jose! :D

Disagree about dominating. I give that to SJ for most of the game although we had our moments. They had far more sustained pressure. The refs missed two calls against the Sharks that were obvious but, hey, shit happens. This would have been a great game to keep going. Have I mentioned I hate the shootout? I HATE the shootout

“Now that I am seeing a more aggressive forecheck and pucks passed cross ice for one timers and far better scoring chances than the Terry Murray era, we need these players to bury the puck.”

… Wow. I just don’t see that at ALL. I see the same stuff going on now that has gone on before. They have been creating chances, but can’t finish them. It’s the same old song. If I didn’t see Sutter on my TV screen, I’d never know for a second that the Kings have changed head coaches. They’re playing exactly the same way – and I don’t have a problem with that, mind you, but there’s very little if any change in the way the Kings are approaching the offensive game.

I thought the Sharks played a good game. Quick was very sharp to keep it a tie game; he was obviously ready to go. Again, Richards scored a goal but didn’t do much else.

The goal was a microcosm of this current struggle, from my view anyway. Doughty makes a great play to pinch and keep the puck in, dishes to Kopitar, Anze makes a brilliant pass through San Jose’s defensive position, and Richards finishes it off perfectly. The problem is that they can’t keep relying on the same three or four guys to win games, or even tie games. They have to get something from the rest of the team if they want to be successful. I don’t think Lewis has the goods. I definitely don’t think Hunter has the goods. Fraser shouldn’t be in there. It’s the same old shit.

“I hope whomever came up with the shootout to end hockey games gets a sudden case of genital warts that starts at his tongue and works its way down. It has ruined the end of games for me.”

… As far as I’m concerned, the game’s over when OT is over. I turn it off, content with a tie if I know the team earned it (which the Kings did). There’s no way the shootout is ruining any part of the game for me. I couldn’t care less if the Kings win that coin flip or not.

That is interesting. The F2’s role is complete different – under Murray, he went behind the net and held back. Now, the F1 and F2 go in together with the F2 trailing. Still not quick enough with both but it is noticeable to me although, admittedly, subtle to most unless you are looking for it which I was.

Maybe it was the great scotch my buddy brought over but the Sharks (though still a good team) looked vulnerable on D and in goal. They are well coached though.

Not so sure what you’re seeing tactically. The Kings are playing with a bit more intensity, but thats normal the first few games under a new coach. But better tactics and more scoring chances? Dont see it at all. Williams and Gagne arent finishing? When did they even have changes? Richardson had one decent but not great chance, Brown had one early in the game, but basically the one clean chance they got they scored on, Mike Richards. I agree that this team cant finish, but thats not a new thing. Basically I dont agree that the Kings offense is all of a sudden better under Sutter overall, they just havent finished the first two games. Its going on two seasons with three different coaches (albeit two very shortly) and this team cant score. I dont think Sutter has done anything to change that so far in terms of tactics or results. 1.5 goals per game so far under Sutter against Anaheim and SJS, Anaheim being a very poor defensive team, the Sharks better this year but not sure theyre elite.

What I saw tonight was the Sharks just had so many game breakers that could beat you so many ways. Thornton was dominating along the boards causing dangerous situations all night, looking for guys in front of the net. Marleau was blasting down the wing. The Kings couldnt take the puck away from Clowe with two people on him. Couture was so smooth and silky all game, not to mention that incredible shot. Michal Handzus we forget is extremely talented. Great at protecting the puck, very strong body with powerful legs, very precise hands even with his long stick. He doesnt always take the game by the horns or accelerate to his full speed, but he certainly has all the tools when he feels like it. Size, great balance, reach, power, great hands, and good hockey sense. There’s Jordan Staal, maybe Dave Bolland, and then there’s Handzus when it comes to 3rd line centers. Stoll used to be there, but Handzus is definitely more talented than Stoll, and always has been, just in terms of size, power, skating, hands, hes more talented.

Pavelski has great hockey sense, always challenging the D making tricky dump ins and finding room in the slot. Their 4th line is way better than it used to be. Winchester, Murray, guys like that play this simple game where they just overpower you. Like Clowe, once they get the puck down low, you cant take it away from them. Its really a brilliant way of building a team, especially in this dump and chase climate the league is in, and all you can really do is tip your hat to Doug Wilson and wish your team had thought of it.

Too much speed and skill from Marleau, Couture, Pavelski, Havlat when healthy, Burns, Boyle. Too much size and puck protection along the wall with Thornton, Clowe, (Marleau and Pavelski again are also great at it), Handzus, Winchester, Murray. Too much finishing ability in Marleau, Couture, Pavelski, Cowe, and Burns.

There’s just too much for the Kings to beat. The Sharks have ALL THREE of those areas on them. Who has more size? The Sharks. Who has more speed? The Sharks. Who protects the puck better along the boards? The Sharks. Who has better shooters? The Sharks.

Who has more talent? The Sharks. Where the Kings keep these games close is in their defense, which is definitely better than the Sharks’, but offensively its not even close. The Sharks have the Kings beat everywhere. The Kings have one guy stepping up right now as a game breaker, that’s Mike Richards. The Sharks have like 10 guys and it could be any of them on any night.

The Sharks team is just really damn good. Vancouver, Chicago, Pittsburgh (when healthy), and Boston might be the only teams with as much or more talent than the Sharks, but even they arent shoe-ins to beat the Sharks. Vancouver and Pittsburgh probably have the best shot, since Vancouver’s speed has caused the Sharks big problems in the past, and Pittsburgh has such a well-balanced team, and Crosby and Malkin at their best will out-produce Thornton, Marleau, etc. But even so, the Sharks can grind the smaller Canucks down and beat them that way, especially if Luongo isnt playing well. Pittsburgh should beat anyone when healthy besides maybe Boston because they rough them up so badly, but they can play poorly too. Chicago is too small and finesse dependent, with terrible goaltending, they will dominate 20 to 20 but the Sharks always own the net when they play the Hawks now, and the boards. Boston is an amazing team but having no powerplay could kill them vs SJ. Theyre also 0-2 vs the Sharks the last two seasons.

Having emotional investment in the Sharks and the west in general, its hard for me to say if the Sharks are the absolute best team in the league and Cup favorites or not, but they certainly have all the talent and gamebreakers to be in the discussion. I thought maybe the kings were catching the Sharks last year, when they pushed them so far without Kopitar, but now they’re not even on the same level in my mind. Losing Smyth, Simmonds, yadadadadada was just so key, I wish Lombardi would have realized that. Did Simmonds really need to go? Schenn was the main piece, add another prospect like Hickey, or Kyle Clifford instead of Simmonds. Simmonds was a huge part of that 3rd line. Smyth obviously had too big a cap hit, but Handzus, damn they needed to keep him, just that extra depth and size and skill, hockey sense, all in one package, you can move him around everywhere, play him on any line, give him 15 minutes a game and he makes an impact. He does.

Really frustrated by this team, what can I say. The roster just is not good enough. Lost too much in the offseason. Hope Lombardi acts soon and adds some top talent. I still advocate trading Jack Johnson, next year’s 1st, Forbort, Moller, Hickey, Matt Greene, Jarret Stoll, whatever else it takes in terms of 2nd round picks and the like, for Zach Parise and Jeff Carter in separate deals (assuming Columbus is looking to dump Carter’s salary and does not expect to get a kings’ ransom back. You have to save the ransom for Parise).

Two more top line forwards is what this team needs in my opinion. Lets hope Dean can make history because I cant remember the last time a team added two top line forwards in one season. Still, Carter wants to come to LA, and Parise doesnt seem wild about staying in New Jersey. One’s contract is about to expire, so his team may be looking to move him when they otherwise wouldnt, and one’s contract goes on forever, for a lot of money, and since hes not working out, his team may be looking to move him while people still value him before theyre stuck with him.

I do think the circumstances are there that could favor the smart and creative general manager. And Dean Lombardi is in the perfect situation, he has all these well-hyped prospects who project well enough to have value in a trade, but who I dont see projecting well enough that you would be sad to lose them. Forbort, Hickey, Moller, Drewiske, who else am I forgetting, Martinez, why not trade them all? They’re like silver pieces to someone whose safe is already completely full with gold pieces, and he cant get another safe. Trade 1, trade 5, whats the difference, none of them are ever going to end up big factors on your team anyway, at least not for years and years. Meanwhile, they net you a 26 year old in his prime, who himself helps your future, so youre not even sacrificing futures for now, you’re trading decent futures for very good futures and very good now.

You get the better end of every aspect of that, basically, if it were the prospects. Thats why I would trade as many of them as it took to build the roster. Keep the ones you think will be top 6 forwards or top 4 dmen, but otherwise get rid of them. Same with Bernier. He could get you a huge return. For now. A few years from now when hes not performing well still, his hype and value is gone. I mean imagine if the Jackets had been smart enough to trade Steve Mason right after his calder season. They could have gotten their franchise dman or forward. Its the same with Bernier. Hes undersized, Im not seeing anything exceptional from him other than his hype. Will he be a good nHL goaltender? Probably, but he doesnt look to be anything truly special, so you deal him while you can still get someone for him who really is something special, i.e a top line forward.

as for the F2, I dont even think Sutter himself has looked to change the forecheck. I think hes said that he hasnt changed anything. I doubt you saw what you think you saw. Depending on where the puck goes, the forwards will sometimes take different routes. They dont always do the same thing over and over, sometimes they decide to change the forecheck themselves. Not in a general sense, for the entire team, but when they’re mid-forecheck, sometimes they decide to go left, sometimes right, sometimes deep, sometimes two of them end up deep, sometimes none. They are always improvising.

Everything looks about the same. Yes, there was a cross ice pass on the powerplay, but its still the same guy running the powerplay, and I dont think thats the coaches. Have there been zero cross ice passes on the powerplay up until now? Thats just what opened up. The Sharks PK actually lets a lot of those cross ice passes happen, where others dont. Thats probably the only reason we saw a couple of them. Mike Richards is a smart player, he saw a seam there and tried it early, and it just missed. Then Brown, seeing Richards did it, tried it back. And eventually Richards scored on that play.

We’ll see what happens, and I didnt watch the game tactically as closely as you did, but I think you might be overblowing what you saw. Lets see if they start scoring more and if Sutter really has changed something for the better. I dont agree and I dont think they will improve much on offense.

We should all get together and watch the game on replay and compare notes because you cats are crazy :) I think even Foxy mentioned before the game (I will double check this) that the Kings have tweaked the forecheck – I saw last night what I saw vs the Ducks. It is very subtle but the F2 no longer takes the long way to the puck and isn’t as much in a passive puck support position but more to apply pressure…which is what a forecheck should be as opposed to an opportunity to play D or solely avoid a turnover.

While on the subject, the one thing I did NOT like was our D giving SJ the cross seam pass all that game. I know it’s not as easy as it sounds but the Sharks do have three layers of attack that end with it (from what I saw) and each one could have been slowed or stopped if the Kings didn’t allow their D to get stretched out.

“We should all get together and watch the game on replay and compare notes because you cats are crazy”

… Actually, I’d be pretty happy to do that. At some point, it’ll happen.

Hope you, Jacob, and your families have a great Christmas. Thanks for putting up with me. This is always my first stop online to talk about the game, and I’m happy to see the site grow. You guys deserve it.

So, I don’t have to write as much then thanks to you guys, cause you already said everything I would’ve said. Probably quite a bit more actually. Sorry Bobby. I didn’t see at all what you saw. Sutter said they played an excellent third period, and for that I tend to agree. The Sharks did play a great third period. Oh wait, I think DS was referring to the Kings. In that case, I’d not agree. He must’ve seen a very different third period than I did.

Just to riff a bit more on 3Team’s comments: last night Foxy was efusive in his praise of Logan Couture (I assume you guys saw the same telecast), and all I could think of was, thank God DL drafted Hickey. Then during the intermission when they were giving the out of town scores and mentioned the Rangers winning again with Gaborik scoring his league leading 21st. Well, at least JW scored the other night if I’m not mistaken (I just arrived in town from ny), but other than that, can’t remember the last time JW or Gagne scored a goal.

So this is personally what I saw. Curious to get feeddback from others to see if anyone is in agreement.

The Sharks have a top six that basically only need a chance or two to put the puck in the back of the net. The fact that they only got one last night is testament to Quick’s brilliance.

The Kings top six (if they have such a thing) basically other than Richards and Kopi (though he’s in a dire slump at the moment), seem to need four, five or six chances. Clearly no forward had that many chances last night (speaking of each player needing that many chances…. not as a group), and so, again, other than MR they didn’t score.

In watching the Premiership when I lived overseas, the announcers would occasionally say that a given team…. during the game, never looked like scoring. And that’s very much how the Kings look to me. They simply don’t look dangerous or even slightly explosive. The Sharks looked like they could’ve easily had four or five last night.
So back to DL. Every team has an architect, and I personally don’t care what he’s contributed to the front of the building. He’s contributed Mike Richards, and thats fantastic. Other than Richards though, who has he been responsible for adding to the team up front thats making any noise whatsoever? No one that I see.

Just kidding. Here’s what I wanted to write. If you finish dead last in the NHL you disappoint the fans but get a lottery pick as compensation. If you finish last in the Premiership you disappoint the fans and get demoted to the 2nd division which means saying goodbye to millions and millions of dollars or euros. That’s why the defense first mentality makes sense sometimes. A point against a title/cup contender is worth gold. The Italians were masters of this system. They were winning games 1:0 by default. It’s damn boring to watch though. Like baseball or Tampa vs Philly.

Meant to say “don’t care for” what he’s brought to the team up front. Six years. For that? It’s simply not good enough as I see it. There is more than one or two other GM’s who’ve improved their teams attacks. That is for sure. DL has done at best an average job with the forwards. And if you want to win a SC, I don’t think that average is gonna get the job done.

Two observations here: I love Mike Richards,but I would never put him in a shoot out.
LA does not need Jeff Carter.There’s a reason Richards was traded right after Carter.Its probably the same reason,Simmonds was separated from Doughty.

In defense of Richards, either it was the ice, or him, but he had to retrieve the puck 2 times, even lost it when he was on Niemi.

Kopitar needs to stop the cute get the goalie to open up a 5 hole, and try to put the puck in there. What he is trying to do, is almost like the person who gets a chance at winning a million dollars if they make that shot from center ice, into that tiny opening in the middle of that panel thing.

Honestly, there is nobody else, including JJ who is good at shoot-outs?

1: Smack down defenseman. If you could clone Scott Stevens, Rob Blake even Dion Phaneuf, the Kings could sure use one. Not one defender can lay a body check on someone on a consistent basis. Deslauries too small, and not sure about the Forbort.

2: Please just get rid of Penner and Stoll. I don’t care about faceoff percentages, or the fact that Stoll is usually money on a shoot out. Stoll misses the net 90% of the time he shoots at it.
Penner is just a big soft forward, who is just not playing well, and will continue to do so. I know both these guys can be cut loose after the season, but please scratch them, keep them out of the line-up.

3: Flush the Tampon once and for all. How much longer is this guy going to be employed by the Kings?

5: I hope Sutter can brainwash the team, and get them to play against teams which are clearly at a higher level. If you want to contend, better hope Quick never has a groin injury, otherwise mail it in.

6: Time to send Loktionov back, clearly he is just not strong enough to playing with the big boys now.

7: Get a left wing for either Kopitar or Richards. Gagne has been AWOL and Williams is looking like a beer league player. I don’t know what happened to him, if its a slump, well he needs a Mark Grace slump buster if you know what I am referring to.

If you use last nights game as a measuring stick, the Kings aren’t even at the bottom of that ruler.